Crystal Dreams
by EverShadow
Summary: This is the story of how Oerba Yun Fang came to Cocoon and met Claire "Lightning" Farron and how the two warriors found their focus and each other. A retelling of the events in FFXIII from the view points of Lightning and Fang.
1. Chapter 1: A Meeting

**Author's Note: This is primarily a retelling of FFXIII from the primary focus on Fang and Lightning, though other characters will be touched upon to further the story. It will develop into a Flight romance. Read and enjoy!**

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><p><em>When <em>_Fang __woke __up__, __everything __was __blurry __and __her__ throat __was __sand__ dry__. __She __blinked __and__ looked __up __at __the __unfocused __figure__ shaking __her __arm__. __She__ recognized__ her __face __but __could __not __remember __the __girl__'__s __name__._

_ "__Fang__!" __The__ girl __shouted__. __Fang__...__is __that __my __name__? __She__ thought__. __And __little __by__ little__, __the __memories __began__ trickling __in__. __Her __name __was __Oerba __Yun__ Fang__, __that__ girl __was__ Oerba __Dia __Vanille__, __they__ lived__ on __Gran__ Pulse__, __they __were__ marked __by __the __Pulse __Fal__'__Cie__. __And__ their __focus__..._

_Suddenly__ the __memories __halted__. __She__ racked __her__ brain __but__ it __was __as __if __she__'__d __fallen __asleep __as __soon__ as __she__'__d __been__ branded__. __But__ she __remembered__ bits __and __pieces __of __their __journey__, __her __and__ Vanille __traveling __all__ over __Gran __Pulse__, __the__ conversations __they __had__, __the __places__ they __went__. __But __she __could __not __grasp __at __what __their __focus __was__._

_ "__Are __you __alright__?" __Vanille __asked__. __Fang __groaned__. __Her __body __felt __stiff__, __as __if __she__'__d __slept __in__ one __position __for __too __long__. __She __looked__ around__ at __their __unfamiliar __setting__._

_ "__Where__...__where __are__ we__?"_

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><p>Lightning first noticed someone following her when she heard the soft footsteps fast approaching her. It wouldn't have been Snow, he was too slow to follow her and even if it had been him, he would make the ground shake with the way he ran. Hope could not jump the gap she'd made a minute earlier and soldiers were too loud, with their uniforms and guns shifting and clicking.<p>

She whirled around a corner and waited until she saw the shadow of the person – tall and lithe. She clutched her gunblade and waited. As soon as she saw the person's feet, she jumped out, bringing her gunblade down hard. In a red flash, that same person brought up a spear, blocking her strike with speed Lightning had never seen before in her life. She stared into dark, feral eyes and was surprised by their intensity. She was used to the complacent, dull eyes of Cocoon residents, not this. These were the eyes of someone born and raised in danger so that it had been bred into their very being.

"I'm a friend!" The person shouted. Lightning jumped away and studied her "opponent." First and foremost she was surprised by how tall the other person was. She thought Snow was giant but this...

And it was a woman.

Lightning blinked. She was unused to fighting women, especially non-soldier women. But this was no ordinary woman. Her body was toned and tense, her eyes searched and anticipated another attack. She looked familiar and foreign at the same time. Lightning wondered why but it wasn't until she noticed the blue of her clothes that she remembered. This was the woman from the market, the one Lightning thought of as wild and fearless. Lightning sheathed her sword and the woman put her spear away.

"Phew. You almost split my head in half." The woman said. She relaxed her stance a little, though Lightning noted that she never fully loosened her body. This woman was not stranger to the battle field and knew not to let her guard down for any reason. How else could she have avoided decapitation?

"Who are you?" Lightning demanded.

"Me? Oerba Yun Fang at your service. You can call me Fang." She replied. "I came here with that lughead brother of yours, Snow." Lightning bristled when she heard that.

"He's not my brother." She snapped.

"He's not? He shouted 'sis!' all the way here." Lightning scoffed and turned around. She had better things to do than sit around and explain why Snow was not and would never be her brother. She walked briskly away. "Hey wait!" Fang chased after her. She was definitely not blood related to that oaf. Seeing how she reacted to any mention of him, Fang guessed that she was not pleased with his relationship with Serah. _I__ wouldn__'__t__ be__ either __if __it __was __Snow__._ Fang thought with a smirk.

"Young fools." She laughed to herself. "Hey!" She followed Lightning as she rounded the corner of the next hall. "Why the rush? You left those two back there..."

"Shh!" Lightning hissed. "You'll give away our position to all the guards here." Lightning peered around the corner where four guards patrolled the stretch of walkway. She huffed and sat down to think. "I can't take them alone." She muttered to herself. Fang tried not to laugh. So this was the Lightning Snow spoke so highly and fearfully of. She half expected Lightning to be a lot taller and maybe more broad-shoulder. But here she was, short, skinny and with a foul temper. She was strong though. Fang's whole right arm still tingled with the shock of Lightning's gunblade clashing against the rigid metal of her spear. She remembered how she'd been able to block a King Behemoth's charge no problem. Either Lightning was much stronger than a King Behemoth or Fang had gone soft in her crystal stasis. She hoped it was the former as the latter meant that returning to Gran Pulse would find her at the mercy of the resident beasts. Fang pulled the spear off her back and over her shoulder. At least these Cocoon soldiers were weak.

"You're not alone." Fang said and rushed out from their hiding spot. "Hey! Right over here!" She jumped over them, surprising Lightning with how high she soared and how gracefully she flipped and landed. The Sanctum guards all turned their attention to Fang who immediately took up a defensive stance. The guards had their exposed backs to Lightning.

Lightning shook off her shock and silently rushed out from the corner. By the time the guards realized they were being flanked, two had already been cut down. The third and fourth turned back and forth rapidly, unsure of who to attack. Fang stepped out of her defensive stance and struck one of them hard while Lightning filled the last one full of lead.

The two took a moment to catch their breaths. Lightning sheathed her sword. She wouldn't say it out loud, but she had a competent companion. And damn she was strong. Where was she from?

"See, work together and we get it done." Fang said triumphantly. She strapped the spear back onto her shoulder and sighed, looking at the carnage. "Well, we'd better get out of here before our friends wake up." She turned around and began walking. Lightning opened her mouth to object, but really she had nothing to object about. They were going in the same direction, what harm could come of them traveling together for a little while. If anything, she was a lot more helpful than Hope.

"Just don't get in my way." She snapped, running past her.

They walked a distance away, with Lightning watching their backs. Finally they reached a relatively safe spot, far from their previous battle and it looked like no guards patrolled the area. Fang stopped.

"Let's rest a while, yeah?" She asked. Lightening wanted to keep going but Fang stretched and leaned against the wall. "You left the boys in a hurry. You don't care what happens to them?" Lightning frowned.

"It's not that. I had to draw their attention. Hope wouldn't last a second..." Lightning stopped and went quiet but she'd said enough for Fang to understand. Lightning felt for Hope the same protective feelings that Fang felt for Vanille. She'd done the same thing not so long ago, drawing the guards away from the person she needed to keep safe.

"Well, we might as well check in on them." Fang said. She produced a thing communicator and Lightning immediately recognized it. It was an army issue device. Did that mean that this woman was part of the Sanctum? Who was she? She eyed Fang suspiciously, not wanting to trust anyone who was under Psicom influence. She heard a voice at the other end answer and immediately Fang exploded.

"You damn well know what's up! Why haven't you called in?" Lightning knew only one person could elicit that much of an angry response. It had to be Snow. She heard the voice on the other end and it confirmed her suspicions. But if Snow had one of these army issue communicators, then was he working for the Sanctum was well? A hundred questions swam through her brain, none of which could be answered while Fang was still on the line. "Right...what's your status?" She walked a short distance away. Lightning noted that with all the shouting Fang was doing, they would attract every guard in the sector. She half expected a swarm to come around the corner, yet none appeared.

"I'm great, you're great everybody's great." Fang took a step back to Lightning and handed her the communicator. "Reunion time. Figure out a rendezvous point." Lightning's eyes widened with surprise. She hadn't thought that far ahead. She took the communicator tentatively. Her hesitance must've shown on her face because Fang smiled and reassured her. "Don't sweat it. That line's hyper-encrypted." Lightning frowned. Was she getting that obvious? The thought of being so transparent unnerved her, but not as much as the idea of talking to Snow for the first time since they'd parted. She tried to think of something to say to him but all that came out was a unsure noise. Silence greeted her on the other end but it was Snow who spoke first.

"Hey sis, is that you?" It was instinctive that Lightning responded with "I'm not your sister." Her mind was still focused on Fang's retreating figure as she scoured the area for potential enemies. She shook her head. She needed to focus on finding a place to meet up. She could ask all the questions later.

Fang peered around the corner. So far so good. No one had come after them and she hadn't seen any influx of activity which meant no one had discovered the bodies of their previous enemies yet. She placed her hand on her hip and turned around. Lightning was busy chatting away to Snow. She looked Lightning up and down. She laughed to herself. Lightning reminded her a little of Vanille in a strange, twisted way. They were both stubborn, both innocent in their own way and both wanting to do everything the right way. Fang shook her head. They were nothing like her, they weren't monsters.

She leaned against the wall next to Lightning. _Vanille__..._she had to find Vanille. She swore from the first day she met her that she would always protect her, no matter what that meant. But how could she protect her now, not knowing where she was, what their focus was, what their enemy was? Things were simpler on Gran Pulse where the enemy was tangible and often hard to miss. Here on Cocoon, the true enemy hid behind soldiers and Fal'Cie, wrapped safe behind layers of protection.

"Hope? Hope! Answer me!" Lightning's voice cut into her thoughts and she pushed herself off the wall. Lightning's shouting was going to get them killed and it wasn't going to do any good. "Hope!"

"Yelling doesn't fix it. It's called _interference_." Fang commented. She felt a smug smile creep up the corners of her face. It was funny that she was lecturing a Cocoon resident about "interference" when she did not know the meaning of the word two days ago. Lightning let out a frustrated sigh, wanting to tell Fang that she wasn't stupid, that she knew what "interference" was but she could only put the communicator back into Fang's hand, too exasperated to yell but still angry enough that she wanted to. And Fang sensed her emotions again.

"I'll take point, you fall in behind. And see if you can't cool off that head of yours." Lightning opened her mouth to object. Who was she to give orders? And who was she to call her hot headed? But by the time she came up with the words, Fang was already scouting ahead. Lightning didn't like it one bit. This woman jumped into her life and read her like an open book, something even Serah couldn't do. Yet all she had was a name. She couldn't tell what Fang was thinking, what she was doing, why she was with Snow. She had no answers when Fang seemed to glean them from her by the minute.

"You coming or what?" Fang called out, her head poking out from behind the corner. Lightning looked back the way they came to check if they were being followed. Fang waited expectantly. She had no choice. Get to a safe spot first, questions later.

Fang found Lightning to be every bit as adept as she was in combat. The girl was fast and precise, a marked difference from Fang who relied on strength and power to defeat her foes. But they made a good team. It was a good thing that Lightning knew healing. Fang relied on Vanille for that as she never quite got the healing arts down. And Lightning, despite her coarse demeanor, was actually quite gentle when she healed.

"Stay still!" Lightning snapped. Fang crossed her arms as Lightning tended to a bullet wound that grazed Fang's leg. Fang hated waiting. It was only a scratch after all but she knew it was better to take care of it now than have it flare up in the middle of a battle. As soon as Lightning finished, Fang took off again, with Lightning trailing. She hit the wall and peered around the corner. There was no one in the immediate vicinity and she sighed in relief. It was time for a breather. Lightning came up right beside her. She waited for Fang to give the word that it was ok. Something white caught her eye and she looked at Fang's arm. A distorted mark resided on the skin; ash white but not dissimilar to the L'Cie brand that they had. She wondered why she hadn't seen that mark before, it was so obvious. _She__'__s__ a __L__'__Cie__?_ Lightning questioned.

"Who are you?" Lightning demanded. Fang looked back at her in surprise, then glanced down at her arm. _You __just__ noticed__?_ Fang thought with some amusement and then the realization sunk in. She would have to explain that she was a L'Cie. Not just any L'Cie, but the one who was responsible for Serah's own branding. She had to come clean if they were going to travel together. She clicked her tongue and paced a short distance.

"Where do I start?" She wondered aloud. Her hand automatically brushed her distorted L'Cie mark. She laughed when she noticed. It wasn't even active anymore but it didn't change who she was or what power coursed through her veins. She turned around and Lightning looked on expectantly.

"I've got a few screws loose, but I'm a L'Cie, same as you." She said. It was simple, it was clear and it was a good place to start. Lightning stared at her skeptically, her eyes flitting from Fang's face to her abnormal mark. It was clear that she wasn't buying the idea that they were the same. Fang smiled at her skepticism. _Smart __girl__._

"Difference being..." Fang began. She wondered how Lightning would react. Lightning was trained as a Guardian Core, she was born and raised to hate people from Gran Pulse. It was so ingrained in her and Fang hesitated before she went on. She had to say it. "I wasn't born on Cocoon." Lightning let out a small gasp. She searched Fang's face for any hint of guile and found none. _If__ she__ wasn__'__t __born__ on __Cocoon__...__then__...__Gran__..._

"I'm from Gran Pulse. The 'world below' that you all hate so much." Fang finished. Lightning's thoughts raced to keep up with the information Fang imparted. Fang could tell that she was surprised, that she probably expected some sort of hairy, mangy beast of a woman instead of someone who looked, talked and acted just like her.

_That__'__s__ why__ she __has__ a __wildness __to __her__..._Lightning thought. Every fiber in her told her that Fang was the enemy, that if she came from Gran Pulse, she came to destroy everything and everyone on Cocoon. _But__...__I __guess__ that__'__s __me __too__._ Fang was partially surprised when Lightning's first reaction was not to attack her. So she went on.

"My partner and I turned to crystal there and gone to sleep. But when we came around...here we were." Fang chose not to tell Lightning that the reason they wound up on Cocoon was that their precious Fal'Cie pillaged and stole everything from her home and probably murdered hundreds of thousands of residents by doing so. No, she had to contain her anger. Lightning was not the enemy, the Cocoon Fal'Cie was the one to blame. She took a step forward to see if Lightning would back away in fear or in distrust. But Lightning did not.

"The reason Cocoon is in such an uproar is the same reason you're here now." _But __they__ were__ crystal__..._Lightning thought. _They __came __around__...__Serah__..._and even though Fang didn't explain it, it dawned on her. Fang could see the realization sink in as her mouth dropped and her blue eyes widened in shock.

"Vanille and I woke up."


	2. Chapter 2: A Reason

It felt like someone had punched her in the gut. Lightning's eyes bulged and she leaned against the wall. Fang placed a hand on her shoulder, which she shrugged off. They woke up, that meant that Serah was going to wake as well. That meant that her sister...

"What do you mean you woke up?" Lightning demanded. Fang took a step back. Her eyes glazed over at the memories. They seemed so distant but it had only been a few days ago.

"About 500 years ago, Vanille and I were turned to crystal. I guess that means we completed our Focus back then. We'd heard all of the stories, how when a L'Cie fulfilled their Focus, they would enter a crystal stasis. We had always thought that was it. Once you were crystal, you couldn't change back. But one day, Vanille and I woke up. But it wasn't without a price." She looked over at Lightning, who hung on every word. "When we came out of our crystal stasis, we didn't remember our Focus or what we'd done. All we could do was wander Cocoon, looking for what we'd lost." Her eyes flicked upward, scraping her memory. "I guess the Fal'Cie weren't done with us yet. Vanille's mark was still active when we woke up. So I had to help her fulfill her Focus. But Vanille..." Fang smiled.

"What?" Lightning asked.

"She didn't want to fulfill her Focus for some reason. We wandered the Vestige for a while, trying to figure out where we were and when. That's when we met your sister." Lightning's eyes shot wide in shock. Her eyes searched Fang's, trying to detect guile but Fang spoke nothing but the truth.

"You...met...Serah?"

"Sort of." Fang scratched the back of her head, thinking of the best way to explain it to Lightning without angering her. But she was sure she would do that anyway once she told the whole story. Snow certainly got angry and Lightning...well...

"We found her lying in the Vestige. She was unconscious and newly branded. So we took her outside, watched over her until she awoke and left." Lightning's eyebrows furrowed, troubled by the thought. How did Serah get there? She placed a hand on her hip and bit her lip, thinking. Fang watched her, raising an eyebrow at how pensive the other woman was.

"Are you saying Serah won't remember anything?"

"Nothing about her Focus." Fang replied. But the words caught on her tongue, as if she herself didn't believe that to be completely true. Talking about it to Lightning brought back the memory of when she first asked Vanille if she remembered anything about their Focus. 500 years of sleep did not make her any less observant, especially when it came to Vanille. Perhaps she was still groggy at the time, but after just telling Lightning about their waking up, she realized how dodgy Vanille had been. She'd been so intent on forgetting about their Focus, even if it meant certain doom for her.

_She w__as a__cting __so __strangely__..._Fang thought. _Almost __as __if__...__as if __she __didn__'__t w__ant to __remember__._

"Fang?" Lightning's voice snapped the warrior out of her thoughts and she shook her head.

"Huh?"

"I asked you, what happened after that?"

"We wandered around some more. I tried to remember what our Focus was, but..." She gestured to her head with a shrug. "Nothing. Eventually, we wound up in the Cocoon Fal'Cie energy plant. I figured maybe it would jog my memory or something. But then that kid stepped in and we had to run for it."

_That k__id__?_ Lightning wondered. Fang did not elaborate further and Lightning let it drop.

"Vanille and I got separated when I drew the guards to me. By the time I took care of 'em all, Vanille was long gone. After that, Raines and the Cavalry found me. I never stopped searching for Vanille but I couldn't find her." She paused and glanced down at her mark again. "Her, or our Focus." Fang paused and her ears perked up. She heard footsteps closing in on their mark from above them. Two...maybe three guards had taken up positions above them and they were chatting on their communicators. What about, Fang did not know. But Lightning didn't seem to care. She stood, frozen in place, absorbing everything Fang told her.

"So, you're telling me Serah will come back to life someday too?" Lightning reiterated as if she still could not believe it. Fang nodded.

"Yep." Lightning looked unconvinced and Fang paused a moment. She owed it to Lightning to tell her why Serah had been branded in the first place. "We didn't do our job right. That's why it made her a L'Cie." Lightning tensed and Fang wanted to stop there, but the words kept tumbling out of her mouth. "We messed up. Sorry." The "sorry" came out less empathetic than she wanted, mostly because she wanted to get the apology out before Lightning cut her in half. It only served to make Lightning angrier. Her eyes flashed dangerously as she stared Fang down. _You__..._Lightning thought as Fang's confession sunk. _You __were__...__responsible f__or S__erah__?_ Rage bubbled in her throat. Fang could not look her in the eye out of shame but Lightning took it as indifference. She walked until she stood right in front of Fang. Her hands were balled up and Fang turned her head upward. It was then that Lightning saw how sorry Fang was. The corners of her mouth were turned down and her eyes held more of an apology than words could say.

But it did nothing to hold Lightning back. Her hand lashed out and Fang caught the business end of the metal studs on Lightning's gloves. Flashes of light burst in front of her eyes when Lightning struck her. She had seen the slap coming, Lightning was not particularly fast and certainly not as fast as the beasts on Gran Pulse. But she deserved it. Had Lightning gone for her gunblade, it would've been an entirely different matter. Nevertheless, her cheek still smarted from the blow. She turned back around defiantly and Lightning saw fire burning in her eyes.

"That it?" Fang asked.

"You sure better hope so." Lightning shot back. For a tense second, Fang thought perhaps they would fight but then Lightning relaxed her posture and she followed suit. "But whether we're square, that's up to Serah." _Up t__o t__he __one __who __got __branded __cuz __of __us__, __huh__? __That__'__s co__mforting__._ Fang thought sarcastically but she kept her comments to herself. She placed a hand over her quickly warming and reddening cheek.

"You sound exactly like Snow." Fang said lightly. Lightning turned away at the comparison. She hated being compared to that idiot and she fought back the urge to hit Fang again. She folded her arms. "And he didn't hit me." Fang chided. Lightning frowned at the thought of being more hot headed than Snow. She'd always thought better of herself, that she was the even tempered of the two people who loved Serah. Suddenly the realization sunk in.

"Wait, he already knows this?" She demanded. She hated being the last to know about anything to do with Serah. Like when Serah found out she was a L'Cie, it wasn't Lightning that she went to first, it was Snow and it irritated her that she would trust that lug more than she trusted her own flesh and blood. She bit the inside of her cheek angrily. Fang broke out in cold sweat, knowing she'd said too much.

"Wow." She said, standing up and trying to change the subject. "That's a load off. Glad I apologized." It was a stupid thing to say but anything to get Lightning's mind off of Snow was welcome. Fang half expected Lightning to see through her distraction.

"You apologized so you'd feel better?" Lightning scoffed but it was a half-hearted one. Fang let out a relieved sigh and relaxed completely.

"Guess so." She said. She turned her gaze to Lightning. She knew that her story was a long one to process, but she guessed it gave the other woman some sort of hope that her sister would be alright. Snow had grinned like an idiot, screaming "I knew it" for an hour straight and pumping his fist. But the revelation seemed to hit Lightning harder than it did Snow. In fact, it seemed to make her sadder.

"How about you?" Fang asked. "Feel any better now that you hit me?" Lightning's cheeks colored, an action that did not escape Fang's notice. She looked away, trying to hide her shame. She'd lost her temper, something that even Serah had rarely seen.

"It didn't change anything." Lightning remarked but her tone of voice was softer than before. If she hadn't already forgiven Fang, she was well on her way. Fang touched her cheek tenderly. There would certainly be a bruise there in a few hours. She could already feel the skin around it swell sorely.

"Tell that to my jaw." She replied. Lightning's eyes flitted over and Fang caught a glimpse of some foreign look on her face that Fang had only seen on Vanille before. _Concern__...?_ Fang thought with some surprise. But it might've been just a trick of the dying light and and Lightning turned her attention to the path ahead. She pointed up to a set of tall, far away buildings and Fang followed her gaze.

"Felix Heights is up there." She said. Fang let out a low whistle. The buildings looked fancy and Fang wondered just how rich Hope's family must be to own an apartment up there. She bit back the nasty thought that tickled at her mind, _Their __bounty is at __Gran P__ulse__'s __expense__._ "Still a ways to go before we get to Hope's place." Fang smirked at Lightning, eying her challengingly.

"Better pick it up." She teased.

"We'll head through that gate." Lightning pointed to a large, unbarricaded bridge.

"Right." Fang nodded in agreement. A smile flashed across her face, and she eyed Lightning mischievously. "I'll race you there." And with that, she was off dashing up ahead. Lightning knew baiting when she saw it, and yet she somehow couldn't bring herself to ignore the challenge laid at her feet. She took off after Fang, catching up to her with speed that surprised Fang and sparked a long forgotten feeling of competition. Memories of the older boys at their orphanage sprung to mind. She remembered how they teased her for being a girl, and told her she should act like one.

She smirked, looking at Lightning's retreating figure. Excitement and fire welled up in her chest and she found a burst of energy that she'd lacked since she woke up from her long sleep. Her legs pumped faster and her breaths faster. The two raced against the quickly setting sun and for the time that they ran, they felt lighter than they'd ever had since the whole ordeal began.


End file.
